Red Hat, Red Hat, and More Red Hat

No doubt Red Hat dominated the headlines today with their 3Q financial report and subsequent quotes. They're also having to say goodbye to CFO Charlie Peters as their stock jumped 10 percent in after hours trading following the report. In other Red Hat news, a security bulletin from the Open Source software company said that latest security scare "Grinch" isn't a bug, it's a feature.

The top story today must be the Red Hat third quarter financial report that shows Red Hat continues its winning streak. The news was carried by just about every outlet I monitor. Their report today said that total revenue for the year is up 15% as was the subscription revenue, beating Wall Street estimates and their own internals. Shares of Red Hat stock jumped 10% at the news in after hours trading and is currently holding fairly steady.

With the good comes the bad as 10-year veteran Red Hat Chief Financial Officer Charlie Peters announces his retirement Wednesday on the same earnings call. He's planning on spending more time with six grandchildren when his retirement takes effect sometime in the next year. He was quoted as saying he'd stay around as long as it's needed to find his replacement.

In other news, Red Hat today addressed the latest security scare first reported Monday saying the utilities that allow the wheel group sudo root access is a feature not a security bug and protected by basic safeguards. "Red Hat does not consider this to be a security issue or even a bug. This is the expected behavior of the PackageKit console client."

And finally today, Barrons.com spoke with Jim Whitehurst after the earnings calls about Red Hat's success and their plans for maintaining their world dominance. Whitehurst said, "Open source has truly gone mainstream. We are at a point now where no one will get fired for using open source. In fact, some people might be worried they’d get fired if they don’t use it. It’s that shift in perception that open source is where innovation is happening."

In related news, The Register said in a review Linux fans will love Fedora 21 if they can get it installed.